By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The millage is passed, and a new Forrest City Junior High School is on the way. With that said, two questions are now being asked.
The first question is, why can't construction start immediately? That leads to the second question, namely, once the construction starts, what's going to happen to the kids currently attending school in the old junior high building, which will be demolished to make room for the new?
Superintendent Lee Vent and Pat Flanagin, financial director for the school district, attempted to answer those questions this morning, starting with the timetable for construction.
"For about the next 60 days, we will be doing two things," said Vent. "The fiscal agent, which is Stephens Inc. of Little Rock, will be preparing the bond sale package to sell the bonds."
He said the State Board of Education will also have to vote to issue those bonds. This will take place at the board's Aug. 13 meeting.
"Paralleling that, the architect is putting the plan to scale and writing all the specifications along that line. We need now to look not at a rough floor plan or model, but actually what size the classes are going to be, the auditorium, colors, wiring, furnishings, all those things. We get down to the plan itself," said Vent.
That also will take about 60 days and should roughly coincide with the sale of the bonds.
"It will be a long summer for us," he said.
The final plans will be part of the bid package. Vent said the book containing the plans will probably be as thick as an old Sears Roebuck catalog.
"It gets down to colors, floor tile types, strengths and all that," he said. "And as we design over the next 60 days, we have to think futuristically. Because 10, 20, 30, 40 and maybe 71 years down the road (the age of the current structure) we'll still be in that building. So what is out there? What are the trends out there?"
Surge protection and computer adaptability will be included in every classroom.
According to Flanagin, the reason all that work had not already been done by the architect is that the architect of record (Bob Beavers) has not been paid for making the rough drafts -- and has not been paid for the rough drafts over the last four years when the millage failed. Now that the millage has passed and it's known that the construction will take place, the real detail work can begin.
Vent said it will take two weeks to a month to bid out the construction. The school board will then award a bid -- if the bid falls within the available money (the bond issue is expected to raise about $7.5 million).
"And sometime around Oct. 1, we will tentatively have a groundbreaking," said Vent.
Once construction begins, there remains the question of what to do with the students. Vent said school will still be held in the old building next year.
"Mr. Beavers is working with the city inspector in that regard. And under no circumstances will we utilize the classrooms below the library where the floor is giving way," said Vent, who nonetheless added, "We do have plans to shore up that floor with reinforcements just to get by the year."
The timing of the different phases of the project is all-important, said Vent.
Before anything is torn down, construction will start on the part of the new facility which will house practically all of the classrooms. That part will be located in the large open area on Division Street, in front of the current building.
Once that part of construction is completed, students will be moved from the old two-story structure into the new building.
The students will also continue to use the one-story north and south wings, which are newer than the two-story structure in the center. The wings, which contain classrooms on one side and the cafeteria on the other, will be renovated. The gym will also be renovated.
"It's going to be a logistical challenge for us," said Vent. "But we think we can do it."
The two-story portion, along with the old auditorium, will be torn down once the students are moved. Then where the old building now stands, another phase of construction will hold the library, auditorium, labs, band and choir rooms and offices.
"The renovation of the cafeteria, gymnasium and the 10 classrooms (in the north wing), we hope, will take place during summer of next year," said Vent. "We hope that all falls in line. Then we should not have any problems."
Vent said there is a contingency plan being worked on in case the timetable doesn't work out, but said he doesn't have details on that yet.
"We feel we can still house the kids," he said. "It's going to be noisy and maybe dusty at times, but it will be cordoned off so the students will not be near the construction or involved in it in any way."
He said it will probably be a year and a half project from October. In the best-case scenario, he said students would return from the Christmas break and occupy the new building in January of 2003.
"There are so many factors. But it is possible, if everything goes according to Hoyle," he said. "It will be very close. We'll just have to monitor and adjust as time progresses."
He also said there would be some new features to the construction. For one thing, there will be no flat roofs -- "the things that give superintendents gray hair," said Vent. State codes now require pitched roofs on new school construction. The building is also required to meet seismic codes.
The new junior high, including all the new and remodeled portions, will cover just over 103,000 square feet, all on one floor.
Flanagin said there will be some inconvenience.
"I hate to compare it to highway construction, but the traffic around there is going to inconvenience everybody who works there and goes to school there and goes through there during the construction period," said Flanagin. "But it's hard to knock progress. And when it's all over, it'll be worth it."
"Even with all of the concerns involved in this, it's certainly going to be a labor of love for us," said Vent. "We're pleased to have the opportunity now to look forward instead of looking back over our shoulders."
Students in the Forrest City School District will be dismissed Friday for the summer break.
Classes will be dismissed at 2 p.m.